


Another Chance: The Beginning

by ilyena_sylph, Merfilly



Series: Another Chance (Pern/DCU fusion) [1]
Category: DCU - Comicverse, Dragonriders of Pern - Anne McCaffrey
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Multi, War Era
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-29
Updated: 2012-10-29
Packaged: 2017-11-17 07:33:44
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,570
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/549132
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>As the Nathi War drags on, survivors begin to forge new alliances to survive.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Another Chance: The Beginning

**Author's Note:**

> Originally published on Livejournal a few years ago, this is revised and hopefully corrected. The story as it stands now is incomplete, but we are working on finishing it. We will put up one section a week until we catch up with all previously published portions, and hopefully deliver the final section one week later.

//Here again?// flicked through the mind of the soldier heading into the army base, seeing a pair of growing-familiar faces as the redhead and brunette walked away from the recruiting station on the colony. Dejection was plain in every line of their bodies as they shook their heads almost in unison, not glancing at each other. To the sharp-eyed observer watching them, they did not look older than twelve at the most, despite the very adult manners and deepened voices they had adopted to argue with the recruiter -- again, as though they weren't remembered. It wasn't the first time he'd seen the pair in their badly worn clothing attempting to join the defense service, as though they had nothing better to do than try to die. It wasn't like the entire colony wasn't in constant threat of death, with the Nathi launching new salvos almost monthly. What population was left of a once-prosperous world had moved deep into caverns and man-made warrens to avoid the bombardment, but these children trying so hard to enlist bothered even his soldier's ethics.

As both boys came close to him he moved, stepping out to lay a hand on both of their shoulders, "Kids."

The brunette turned first, slowly, looking up with blue eyes that flashed between furious anger and the disappointment that had been in his body a minute earlier. "Yeah?"

//Soldier... okay, maybe they changed their minds?// the boy thought, half-hopeful, though it was more likely the big man with the pale hair and combat scarring was just going to tell them to get lost like the recruiter had. If it was something worse... he took a breath, keeping his face even. If it was something worse, he would get Roy clear, at least. No-one expected a couple of 'kids' their age to be good in a straight fight -- that'd saved their lives a couple of times. This man looked a lot like trouble, though.

"There's nothing either of you can do to pass my recruiters, so why do you keep coming? There'll be plenty of time to join up when you're old enough."

The redhead turned too, at that, eyes golden under the green, as the brunette looked up at him with darkly dangerous blue eyes. "What makes some city-soft brat at sixteen that's never gotten their hands dirty more use than we could be now?" the brunette asked, nearly snarling.

"Why don't you tell me just what you offer that's so hot a commodity you want to sell it so young?" the older man countered.

"Other than 'nothing left to lose'?" the redhead asked sharply, voice touched with an accent unlike anything the older man was familiar with. Strange, given that he made it his business to be familiar with the people he served. "I've been a hunter and scout since I was old enough to handle a bow, and I never miss. An' D--"

"Can talk for himself. We hear th' army has mech problems -- if it's an engine, I can keep it running. ...'cept the big anti-matter ones. Don' understand those, yet."

The big man snorted. "They won't let you in... but if you honestly don't have anything to lose --" //too many orphans, dammit!// "--I might have use for a couple of pairs of quick feet and eyes."

"...you serious?" the brunette asked, his eyes still wary as he cocked his head up, rolling his shoulders back to get a better look. "I kinda recognize you, you're in an' outta base a lot."

"I'm serious." //I'd rather have you directed then getting killed scavenging without guidance.// "I need scavengers, spotters, target guides. Think you're up to doing it, the pair of you? I can fix you up with rations."

They looked at each other for a moment, though most of their attention was still on him, speaking in the shifts of their eyes and the shoulders under his hands. After a few moments, they both looked back at him, nodding. "We can," the brunette said. "Y'just tell us where you need us to be, an' when. We'll do it."

"Deal." He held his hand out to the brunette to seal the deal.

He took it without hesitation, his handshake firm. "Name's Dick Grayson. You?"

"Slade Wilson." He held his hand out to the redhead, once the boy--Dick--had let go. He didn't insist on his rank; it might scare them off too badly. It wasn't as if he'd asked for those final promotions, given when the upper ranks proved too thin for the disaster.

"Roy Harper," the redhead said as he shook as well, grip as strong as the brunette's.

Slade offered up just where they could find him, and when, while silently hoping he could find a way to protect them from their own zeal... if nothing else, at least by training them to use it.

The two nodded, obviously committing the address to memory, and then they were both gone out of his sight. 

*** 

"Too good to be true, 'mano," Roy hissed, low and soft once they were two tunnels away and sure no-one was following them. 

"Yeah, I know. We move t'night, switch off going to meet him... but it's food at least, if he's playing straight."

"If," the redhead growled softly. "But yeah... real food."

Dick nodded, hand settling at the base of Roy's spine for a second, reassuringly, before the two of them got moving again, quickly making it down to where they'd been camped out for the last couple of months. Gathering everything they had into bags took only a few minutes, and then they were gone from there, heading around into a different section to hunt for another abandoned piece they could stake out. It wasn't like they ever managed to take up any spot for too long before someone got nervous or interested, and they had to move places again.

***

Slade had run the names through the system, trying to find what he could of the two boys. Once he had tried -- and found 'presumed dead' certificates on both of those names, from several years previous -- he set about making plans for them. He knew exactly where he wanted them to go check, find the remnants of alien tech, and try hard to find the clue they needed to break Nathi superiority. Knowing that the boys were legally 'dead' had done nothing to improve his temper in the slightest. 

For the first full month and change, it was one or the other of them meeting him, finding out what he wanted them to hunt, picking up the rations he had promised, and coming back within days with whatever they'd found. After that, when things were going alright, both of them would come, listen, tell him what they already knew of an area, and then be gone again. It worked for him, until their very loose allegiance made him worry more, and caused him to slip them both a passkey to his place, just in case.

They both had apprised him warily at the keys being handed over, pocketed them, and vanished even more quickly than usual, as though the gift had frightened them both. 

He couldn't say he was surprised at that, the two had obviously been completely on their own for far too long. 

***

About two weeks after he'd given them the keys, he made it back to his place to Roy's voice coming from the cramped bath. He was blatantly cursing in some language Slade still didn't recognize as he worked on cleaning out a set of wounds on the half-conscious Dick, ignoring the seeping cut along his jaw to do so. He jumped like he'd been shocked when he saw Slade in the doorway, his eyes that odd shade of gold they went when he was truly angry or scared.

"Here, kid," Slade said softly. "Let me tend him, and you look at that scratch on your own mug." The older man took a careful step in, finding a spot he could kneel down to finish the job Roy had begun.

Roy's eyes sparked brighter for a minute before he slowly let go, handing over what he was working with. "That? 'S nothin' -- but okay, I'll clean it." He tacked the last on at the look Slade gave him, and turned to do just that, then watched Slade with sharp eyes as he worked on his best friend and partner.

Slade was relieved as he cleaned and dressed the wounds to realize they were nothing like Nathi-inflicted... but he recognized false-knuckle and nailed boot wounds just as easily.

"You kids are having trouble down in the warrens, I see." Slade shook his head. "Might be able to scrounge a few more rations to share... or you could just use this place."

Roy's head went back defiantly for a minute, but then he nodded slowly. "Had more'n we ought, they thought... be the same anywhere else _we_ could be..." 

"Roy, we c'ld--" 

"Shush, Robbie, y'brain's rattled," Roy told him firmly, glaring past Slade's shoulder.

Slade smiled at the pair, and set about suturing the worst cuts. "Be still, Dick." His voice was firm, caring, and not to be argued with.

"Mm..." Dazed blue eyes studied his face intently, then he nodded slightly and settled, barely wincing as Slade stitched him back together.

"At least tonight, you two stay here... you can use my--you can use the spare room." It still hurt to think of that room having been intended as his sons' room.

"Alright." Roy's eyes said what he wouldn't about anyone having spare space, and he moved to help Dick. "Which way?" he asked, as cluelessly as though he hadn't checked the house completely before going back in to take care of Dick. 

Slade led him into the barren, empty room, all of the former belongings stored in carefully packed boxes in the corner. Roy nodded at him and moved to get Dick settled on the bed, staying with him until he went ahead and went out. Once he was sure Dick was asleep, he went to find Slade, leaning against the wall a few feet away from his seat on the couch. 

He still wasn't real sure what to think of this man, but at least they were getting to be useful, helping kick the damned nasties back off the planet, and getting fed for it. "Sorry t' just show up an' use y'stuff, but... y'did give us keys."

"I did. With the intent that you have it as a fail safe." Slade pushed two more cards along the coffee table toward Roy. "These, I had made in case I don't make it back one day. Seems right to give them to you both now." He had claimed both of them, gotten them legitimate IDs which would let them claim certain things from him... if their planet survived this.

Roy picked them up, eyed them--and his eyes snapped up to Slade's face as he asked harshly, " _Why_?" He couldn't keep from feeling like a trap was snapping shut around them, especially since he'd just _brought_ Dick here, when it was going to be hard as hell to get back out... 

"Because, Kid, I've got no one left. Seems the only right thing to do, since I can't seem to figure out a way to pay you kids for what you risk."

"Y'pay us plenty," Roy argued, but the look on Slade's face earlier, and now... //got no one left... like us// he realized, and it made a little bit of the panic slowly start to ease away. 

Slade shrugged, irritably. "I don't make it back, those mean you can find a way to keep moving forward, kid. I do make it back each and every time..." His voice implied he had very little faith at the idea of that happening. "...and you kids have cards that let you access more profitable scrounging."

"Huh. Lot for you t'do, just for a couple'a _ant'ii_ kids..." he couldn't, and didn't truly try, to keep the suspicion out of his voice. He didn't think the big man was the type to want more in payment than he wanted to give, but...

Slade's eye went to the picture that still hung on the one wall, him and his wife, two boys, so close in age, so close to the ages the two of them were. 

"In their memory," he offered, his voice hard with the force of talking past grief.

Roy moved to him once he got a good look at the picture, hand closing hard around one broad shoulder. He could kind of follow the logic there, and leaned in against him slowly. "Awright. Y'won' hear another word 'bout it," he said softly.

Slade nodded, then rose and went to the kitchen, to get food for the three of them.

Roy went to help as much as he could, before taking food back to Dick and waking him up, telling him they were staying in a tone even his incredibly stubborn partner knew not to argue with. 

*** 

Once Dick had the story Roy had brought him, and they had decided that since they hadn't lost each other yet, maybe, just maybe they wouldn't be bad luck for someone else that had lost his real family, they stayed. Decision made, they were working even harder than they had at helping any way they could... until finally the service managed to beat the Nathi off the world, and the Fleet -- drawn in from Cygnus finally to finish mopping up -- smashed them in the skies above.

Slade breathed easier... until his heavy role in the effort started shoving him into the limelight just as the FSP started reckoning up the costs of the war.

Dick looked up as the door slammed behind him, and came to his feet in one long move, his head tipping to the side as he went to Slade, worried at the fury on his face, "What is it?" 

Roy came out of the back bedroom at the sound, coming to join them on silent feet. Slade clenched his fists at his side. "The damnable government is _penalizing_ worlds for being attacked, that's what!"

"... _What_?" Dick looked at him with a second's complete disbelief.

"The cost of the war -- it's being dumped back on the planets that most needed the damn assistance!"

Roy said something all liquid vowels and elided consonants that made Dick flinch slightly, and their lips quirked in almost identical cynical smiles after a moment. "Huh. Well. That sounds about like them," Dick said. "...Means th' tax rates are gonna go through the roof, don't--doesn't--it?"

"Means the food shortages won't ease up, Kid. The push will be on developing industry, not on farming, to pay off the mortgage on the planet."

"...damn," was all Roy had to say, shaking his head again. "No wonder th' elders fought s'hard to make sure the People's lands were free 'n' clear... not that it--" he bit into his lip hard, and Dick turned, reaching for him instinctively, pulling him in against his body hard.

Slade only rested a gentle hand on the kid's shoulder as he got close enough to them. "The People?" he questioned, voice quiet and inviting without being too prying.

"Din'eh... Naavaho, y'might know..." Roy said as he shifted a shoulder back against Slade's hand, hands wrapped into the fabric of Dick's shirt. 

"Ahh." That hand squeezed then, in unspoken sympathy, as memory of the plague that had struck the Amerindian population so hard years before surfaced. He moved slowly, until he was a solid wall at Roy's back. "Thinking about finding a way off planet, boys. Somewhere the FSP won't be too interested in for a long time."

"Luck t'that," Dick said almost bitterly, but at the serious look on Slade's face, nodded. "Y'find somewhere, an' we'll get, one way or the other."

"Not leaving you boys behind," Slade said gruffly. "I find something, then we three make a choice... together, because who else is going to have our backs?"

"Aye, that," Roy said from his place between the two of them, his chin hooked up over Dick's shoulder. Dick looked up and nodded. "You're right. We chose, and we go."

Slade nodded, before pulling back to go start making comm calls. Surely there was something, even if it boiled down to just an out of the way exploration jaunt.

It did take some time, but word of a colony expedition being put together by the governor-heroine of First and the Admiral of Cygnus reached his ears. A little more time, and he had what of the documentation was already available. The planet was unwanted by any company given how resource-light it was, and it was light-years off the shipping lanes, the survey reports read like something almost too good to be true, it was the wrong direction in space to have been Nathi touched...

"Boys!" he called, once he had looked it over from every angle he could think of.

Dick came to his right side, Roy to his left, both of them cocking their heads curiously as they saw the sheets lying in front of him. "Y'found something?" Roy asked, letting Dick reach for the sheets first.

"Maybe. Damn far off the beaten path." Slade snorted. "Benden and Boll are looking into it as a viable colony." Both names were familiar to the boys as well; Slade had looked into all the Nathi veteran heroes he could, and the hero of Cygnus and the governor of First were among the most prominent.

"Off the path's a good thing," Roy said as Dick read the information over. 

"A real earth-parallel?" Dick said after a few minutes, "and not touched except the EEC team? FSP's willing to cede it at the cost of the trip? ...Where's the hook?" he asked, wary and uneasy at just how good it sounded.

Slade got a chuckle out of that. "The bait for the FSP is getting rid of all us nut jobs with PTSD."

"...if there's a lot of the vets going, I can see that," Roy said, nodding. "Don' want us mucking up their plans t'take everything over with _bela'agana_ greed like since the First Times... an' Benden and Boll--" 

"Keroon too," Dick interjected as he looked up from the report for a minute. "Offering space t'any with creds to put t'wards the cost and willing t'live at a low tech level... Sounds good to _me_..."

"It would, you scamp -- it means nothing more than simple engines." Slade smiled at the brunette. "Alright, I'll scrape my creds up, liquidate what -- liquidate the joint assets."

Roy tucked in tighter against his shoulder, holding on at that catch in his voice. "Sounds good to me, too. Bet we do better'n the pack of space vets it sounds like're goin... Wilds are wilds, galaxy over, an' we know them. Least Dick and I do." He grinned up, playful and affectionate, and said, his voice teasing, "We c'n teach you."

"Good." With that agreement, Slade went to work on getting in touch with the right people to get them moving.

*** 

The biggest problem had turned out to be getting them over to where the expedition was being put together, but even that had been accomplished with less trouble than Slade might have expected. Before the war had reached their planet, he'd been in engineering, and the knowledge had come back to him easily, allowing him what amounted to a dual place in the colony, with his boys right there with him.

Dick had crammed for certification exams practically the entire trip, making sarcastic commentary at the uselessness of paper tests about engines the entire time. Roy had tried testing in the trade he was better at, but the agronomy tests were written in such technical language that he had given up in furious disgust and said he'd just make it once they got there. Slade had looked at him and said there was a hell of a lot more pride to be had in knowing it hands on, than in just having the book knowledge. Roy nodded at him at that, making a low comment about his people surviving just fine for ages without writing stuff down, and settled back down.

Once they were to the staging area, they all spent their time learning as much about the people in the command structure as they could. Slade easily found a place with the other engineering specialists. Dick had more trouble getting the mechanics to take him seriously for a while, and Roy had even more trouble in the agronomy department until he let one of them know just _where_ he'd grown up, and what that meant he knew about animals and plants and survival alike. After that, things went more smoothly for them, up until they were all to go into cold sleep for the trip. Roy had nothing less than a paranoia about that, but he didn't want to wind up fifteen years older before they even got there, either.

Slade came and settled a hand on his shoulder, the way he always did when one of his boys was agitated. "You go to sleep, and you Dream. Dream big things for us."

Roy nodded, calming down at Slade's certainty, and went into the cold sleep without another complaint, knowing Dick was right beside him.

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Another Chance: Extended Verse](https://archiveofourown.org/works/987616) by [ilyena_sylph](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ilyena_sylph/pseuds/ilyena_sylph), [Merfilly](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly)




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